Surface cleaning machines are well known. These machines may be self-powered, towed, or pushed, and/or manually powered and may carry a human operator during cleaning operations. Such machines include scrubbers, extractors, sweepers and vacuums, as well as combinations thereof, intended for cleaning, scrubbing, wiping and/or drying a portion of a substantially flat surface both indoors and outdoors. These devices typically include a source of cleaning solution, solution applying means for distributing cleaning solution onto the floor surface, scrubbing means for engaging a wetted floor surface and a vacuum system for removing soiled cleaning solution from the floor surface. The cleaning solution is typically supplied to the floor surface through or near rotary scrub brushes operating from a lower portion of the machines.
One of the costs for owning surface cleaning machines is costs for maintenance services, such as oil changes, fluid replacement or other services that allow the machines to perform better and last longer. Machine owners typically keep a fleet of surface cleaning machines at different onsite locations. A service technician typically travels from offsite to perform maintenance services onsite since it is often too difficult to transport surface cleaning machines to and from an offsite service center.
In some cases, when a machine owner determines that a machine needs service, the owner contacts an offsite service center, which then schedules an onsite service call. Sometimes, an undesirable period of time lapses between the time the owner determines that service is needed and the time the onsite service call actually occurs. This causes unwanted machine downtime that can be costly.
In other cases, an owner schedules an onsite service call for a future date. The owner picks a future date by estimating when service will be needed based on predicted machine usage. However, sometimes, the machine is used more than was anticipated and needs service earlier than the prescheduled date. An owner must then reschedule the service call for an earlier date, if possible, or suspend operation of the machine until the service call takes place. Other times, the machine is used less than was anticipated and does not need service by the prescheduled date. The owner can simply keep the prescheduled service call, thereby incurring the wasteful costs of the service when it was not needed, or reschedule the service call. However, since owners often keep a fleet of service maintenance machines, they can have difficulty in keeping track of the maintenance each machine needs. As a result, service calls often take place too early or too late. Thus, it would be desirable to facilitate scheduling of onsite maintenance service call dates for surface cleaning machines.